My Favourite Place: Inverewe Garden in Wester Ross

The garden was built in the mid 1800s by Osgood Mackenzie and it’s got everything I love. It’s on a rocky peninsula jutting into Loch Ewe, in a wild, remote part of far north-west Scotland, where the mountains meet the sea.

It’s very exposed so the first thing he did was create a shelter belt and thousands of mature trees and other plants now protect the garden from strong winds. Inverewe benefits from the full effect of the Gulf Stream and it means there’s remarkably little frost, so they can grow a huge range of plant species.

There are giant Douglas firs and giant redwoods and the biggest specimens of Wollemi pine I've seen in cultivation. The moment you walk through the main gate, you’re met by plants from the Antipodes – astelias, phormiums, plants with wonderful spiky forms and towering eucalyptus trees above. There's lots of meconopsis and, in April, there are tens of thousands of Erythronium revolutum, in massive spreads.

The rhododendrons are massive specimens, way over 100 years old. You walk along a lovely avenue, with occasional glimpses down the loch, and it's only when you look up you realise that the trees are rhododendrons!

It’s absolutely my kind of garden. I do appreciate formality, but I’m more into working with nature and at Inverewe, you see habitat everywhere you go. If only they could have a rich benefactor who could give them all the staff they deserve!

I was involved in a recent project to restore part of the rock garden in the modern crevice style. Set on terraces, it has great views out over the loch and it was built by Mairi Sawyer, Osgood Mackenzie’s daughter, from the Torridonian sandstone of the original house after it burned down.

Hiking up the steep slopes is like climbing up a mountain glen! You think that you’re in ordinary woodland, but when you get your eye in you can see the most extraordinary specimens. And the rainfall is really high so if you’re into your bryophytes, it’s amazing!

■ For more information visit: Inverewe, Poolewe, Wester Ross IV22 2LG; www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/inverewe.

Former president of The Sco ish Rock Gardening Club, Ian Young, likes to take a break from his weekly Bulb Log Diary to visit the dramatic landscape at Inverewe Garden in Wester Ross.